Garde and his under-performing group met up for the first time this week with a light session on Wednesday and the players know that changes will be considered for the clash at Stoke a week on Saturday.

Speaking about his stoppers, the Frenchman said: “I don’t want to rule out Brad Guzan completely because I know he is an experienced player.

“I guess that his situation is not easy at the moment but then I have to say as well he is training very well and backing Mark.

“He is doing a good job with Tony Parks.

“But it is not completely definitive in my opinion.

“Every player, even in this position, has to perform very well because I’ve got competition in every position in the field.

“I’m not saying in time it will be the same situation.”

Joey Barton

Sherwood is not blameless - Barton

Former Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood has to shoulder some of the blame for the club's current predicament, that's the view of Joey Barton.

Huge clear-out needed

Aston Villa need to have a massive clear-out says club legend Tony Morley.

The former Villa winger, 61, was a European Cup winner with the club and has spoken out on their recent demise.

He said: “We need to have a good clear-out to sort it out because we are going nowhere at the moment as a club and this is a fantastic football club.

“Maybe this is a pivotal point where we have to look at each other and people at the club and say: where are we going to take this club from here?

“It is not looking very good at the moment and some supporters turned on the board.

“We didn’t have enough quality on the pitch against Liverpool.

“We can stand here all day and criticise, but we just weren’t good enough.

“Second half we weren’t in the game, it was a bit depressing.

“There is no-one who could have come out of the game and thought they have done OK.

“We have to bounce back from somewhere but I can’t see where we are going to bounce from.

“I feel for the players because I have been in that situation fighting relegation as a young lad at Burnley. But Burnley weren’t a massive club like Aston Villa.”

Aston Villa's Joleon Lescott after the 6-0 defeat to Liverpool

'Complete tool'

Aston Villa defender Joleon Lescott has hit the headlines again after seemingly daring a fan to meet him at the club's training ground.

The former Albion defender caused controversy at the weekend after his side's hammering at home to Liverpool when he tweeted a picture of a flash Mercedes only to later apologise that it was 'accidentally' posted while he was driving with his phone in his pocket.

Now the former England defender, 33, has responded to a personal threat on his j.p.lescott Instagram account, by telling a fan to confront him face-to-face at Bodymoor Heath.

See the stats here

Gil, incredibly one of only four players to have scored for Villa this season who started in the Liverpool humiliation, at least has some return with his two top-flight strikes.

The goal-of-the-season contender at Sunderland was special but he has created just 19 chances all season and is yet to set up a goal.

On top of that his crossing has been appalling. Not one of his 23 deliveries has found a team-mate which highlights Villa’s troubles down the flanks.

The holding midfielders aren’t completely free of blame, either.

It’s 21 MONTHS since Westwood scored for Villa while Gana is yet to get off the mark in the Premier League.

Westwood has only found the target with four of his 17 shots at goal and has created just 28 chances in 20 games.

He wins three quarters of his tackles, keeps the ball moving nicely and has a passing accuracy of 84 per-cent but he needs to do more.

Gana is up there with the best in terms of tackling and intercepting the ball but there aren’t any figures to show how often he leaves the defence exposed as he drifts out of his holding role.

If he was chipping in with goals and assists he could be forgiven but he’s been caught out of position too often with little excuse.

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Westwood and Bacuna were both handed new five-year deals this summer while Gana and Veretout arrived after signing contracts of the same length.

At present, though, Villa aren't getting much return for their long-term investment.

Boss Remi Garde might look to freshen things up for the trip to Stoke City with Carlos Sanchez, Jack Grealish, Jordan Lyden and Scott Sinclair all likely to come into contention.

And if any of the above find themselves as the fall guys they won’t have much to moan about.

Adele

Be more like Adele!

A Birmingham university lecturer is advising Aston Villa defender Joleon Lescott to join singer Adele and leave his tweeting to the professionals.

Lescott felt the wrath of fans after he posted a picture of a swanky silver Mercedes-AMG S 63 Coupe, worth in the region of £125k, a little over an hour after Villa suffered their biggest home ever defeat on Sunday, losing 6-0 to Liverpool.

He later apologised and said the tweet had been an “accident” that “happened while driving and my phone was in my pocket.”

Mark Brill, senior lecturer in Future Media and Digital Communications at Birmingham Central University, said the player should get the club’s social media team to manage his account in future.

Mr Brill said: “It is not impossible to accidentally post a picture to Twitter, it would take an unlikely chain of events for it to happen.

“However, this incident highlights the broader challenge with Twitter and social media in general.

“It has a very viral nature and posts can spread quickly. The sheer scale of social media means that posts are amplified beyond any previous expectation.

“What might be a minor throw away comment in the pub becomes a ‘Twitter Storm’ in social media.

“Twitter gives celebrities and sports people direct access to their fan base. Of course that is both good and bad.

“The challenge is that footballers like Joleon Lescott are not journalists or trained PR managers. They often misunderstand the implications of what they post in social media.”

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“It is interesting to note that Adele has stated that she is not allowed to post on her own Twitter account due to too many drunken Tweets.

“The situation is not helped by the fact that some people take pleasure in criticising or even harass others”

He added: “If he is a little accident prone with his phone, then as a manager I’d suggest keeping off the site and getting the club’s social media team to manage it for him.”